As many of you know, I’ve taken a hiatus from WUWT for almost two months, and I offer my humble thanks to the many people that contributed of themselves to allow that to happen. I’ll be back at the helm soon, but for now, I wanted to share this video. Charles the Moderator (CTM) joined me in the desert wilderness of Eastern Oregon to experience the eclipse together….and we did. We set posts to publish ahead, and left the grid…it was the first time since the mid 90’s that I’ve been without Internet access for 3 days straight.
I prepped for months. Three cameras. Tracking mount. There’s no way to practice for this, all you can do is make best guesses. One of my guesses turned out OK. Not perfect, but I’ll fix it in post.
As for the total eclipse, it was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had – an intersection of science, technology, photography, art, and history. Literally, it was jaw dropping as I stood there gazing at the corona in awe. I saw the annular eclipse in 2012 – this was orders of magnitude beyond that experience. Here are some stills from the video.
And, at the end of the day, driving back on Highway 395, the sun gave us a second show, complete with crepuscular rays.
The place we were at, Deep Creek Campground in Ochoco National Forest, was not crowded at all. In fact, we avoided all the traffic, the gas lines, and the crowds. We were by ourselves – blissful solitude.
All for now. I’m zorched.
P.S. I apologize for leaving you all stuck with NASA TV while we were gone. I hear it was even worse than you’d expect…talking heads, inanity, small split screens….
UPDATE: Here’s another photo taken with a different camera (Nikon D1500 D7500). The exposure is reduced, and you can see prominences on the edge of the sun….these are magnetic field lines that are causing hot gas eruptions from the sun’s photosphere. Click to enlarge.
Thanks for this! Indeed – what can compare to a total eclipse? Definitely the most stunning and awe-inspiring experience I have ever had. I’ve seen partials before, but never a total eclipse… this one yesterday (we were in Missouri east of KC about 1.5 hrs) left me utterly without words.
I was in the Lawson area, and the clouds broke long enough to allow us to see the partial leading up to, and the total phase of the eclipse. for me it was all the most spectacular event I have ever witnessed. Even my wife, who was “just tagging along” with her geek husband was impressed. Well worth all the planning and traveling. I can’t wait until 2024!
Thanks, sounds much more fun that the screaming college kids waving banners on NASA coverage. I was disappointed to find out you were not streaming your own stuff, That was the impression I got from the announcement.
Hopefully in the near future we will have a round up of some real scientific measurement that were done. I’d be interested in looking at the phase lag in air temps and downward IR during totality. I know John Christy was doing some measurements, but he did not say what.
I looked into it…there was just no way short of renting a satellite uplink, and despite claims of “big oil funding” it was way outside of my budget.
See you in texas in 2024?
If I’m still on the planet, yes.
Just glad to hear from you, Anthony and glad you’re enjoying yourself.
I was seeing the eclipse just around 50 miles north of you and Charlie! It was about 96% covered for me in my front yard in Kennewick,using a hand held Mylar filter the size of a playing card.
This was my third Solar eclipse,the first one one was Total on February 26,1979,in Kennewick. Have two very large photos I got from a friend,in nice frames.. The second one was in the early 1990’s using a 11″ F 10 Celestron Telescope with a Full Mylar mask on the front end,the view was great! Shared with a lot of people that day next to the Columbia River.
I will be 64 in 2024,maybe see it once more?
I was one of those disappointed people. BUT – hearing that you and Charles actually got a real three days off from the world – I do not begrudge. (Envy, yes…)
Cycled back and forth between outdoor pinhole camera observations (Boulder Colorado at 93%) and NASA “coverage”
NASA stuff was awful – – – they seemed more intent on showing how multicultural, polygender they are, and how many times they could use the words “awesome” and “cosmic”. Most of the talking heads sounded like kindergarten teachers. Seriously.
Watched the feeds from eastern Oregon, Casper Wyoming, Carbondale Illinois, and South Carolina and it was a parade of similar talking heads.
They showed repeated views of the solar disc, “diamond rings”, and a bit of the corona, but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of what the landscape looked like in totality at the various locales. Cripes!! Split-screen technology ain’t that difficult (even for NASA rocket scientists) and it would have been so cool to see the sun-moon dance simultaneous with a landscape view side-by-side
Time to significantly downsize the agency and limit their mission to unmanned solar system/space exploration.
I wonder why NASA didn’t hire Al Gore as commentator, just to cap it all off.
NASA raw feed was better than local overcast.
“Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle can look just like a diamond ring”
Far From Me, John Prine
maybe somebody here took some interesting landscape photos, realizing that everybody else would be trying to flood the data pipes with the common article.
i didn’t have enuff of an eclipse to matter with the cloudy day, so i got nothin but a stupid rainbow around where the sun is hiding. boring.
I tried to capture the tree line illuminated by darkening into totality but screwed it up. As totality approached, I realized a time lapse or video of the changing appearance of the landscape was far more interesting photographically than as you say, “the common article”. Maybe in 6.5 years I’ll get it right.
Awesome.
Very nice, and glad you had a most excellent vacation!
I saw the eclipse with my wife Celeste and everything went as planned. We had to drive and camp to get to the totality. We were able to set up our little observatory on a spot out on the wildlife refuge in Nebraska and let it happen. The weather played with us a bit in the morning but we decided to stay put and it payed off!!! This was an amazing experience!!! So much goes through your mind especially since we had read and heard things about experiencing a total eclipse. In the end you just look up and all you can think is WOW, just WOW!! I am absolutely planning on getting to the next one in the US in seven years.
My wife said, It’s too dark and I can’t see anything!”
Just kidding.
Excellent photos, Anthony. I got some good ones in South Carolina I’m happy with them, but yours are really great. very lucky to have clear skies in SC, there was a big thunderstorm a dozen miles to the south and it was a close-run thing.
My first total and I agree- “jaw-dropping.”
The way back from the Mississippi River overlook at Illinois’ Fort Kaskaskia Historical site up I55 was not pleasant. Yes Virginia it did cause a traffic jam.
Here’s a video of the crowd reaction YouTube
Try this LINK
not my cup of tea, it’s ok at a game of football, but not sort of thing for an event to be experienced once or twice in the lifetime.
I saw the one that went up the East Coast in 1970 and it was the same then, clapping & hollering etc. We were on the beach at Virginia Beach and there were some university professors who brought their astronomy classes there so it wasn’t a bunch of yahoos. By the way mission control shouts and hollers when one of the their rovers sends back the first message from Mars or Titan etc.
Number three for us is in seven years – if I’m still here (-:
see my comment : August 22, 2017 at 2:11 pm
WOW! Most concise, best work…I’ve seen on the event. Reminds me of the book I’m reading, “The Boys in the Boat”. About the 1936 Olympic rowing champs (U of Washington State) in Germany. Literally YEARS of training to accomplish a WIN in less than 10 minutes. The parallel, as Anthony noted: MONTHS OF PREP for 5 minutes of action. BUT that action turns out A WINNER!
To clarify, that was the U of Washington, not Washington State. They are two different institutions, as football fans are well aware. The word “State” in MH’s post above was meant to clarify that the U of Washington is in Washington State (in Seattle), not in Washington DC.
As a football fan, I’ve seen WSU score 30 points or more against USC on several occasions. WSU is in a tough conference and has pulled off some great wins. Wait ’til next year…
Excellent book. Next, if possible, read “The Three Year Swim Club”.
Very similar theme, at the same point in history..
My house is 2 miles outside the zone of totality. I drove 25 minutes to a nice spot, no traffic or crowds, where I had 63 seconds of totality. I figured that getting 32% of the duration for 2% of the effort was a reasonable trade. It was truly amazing. As a student in early 1970, I made the pilgrimage to southern Georgia. Alas, it was cloudy. Got lucky this time, with the local clouds clearing with a couple of minutes to spare. I was recording NASA TV, thinking to catch a replay. I lasted 15 minutes before giving up on the drivel.
We had an eclipse in the UK a couple of years ago which was not quite total but near enough and there was one here a couple of decades ago as well
I was present for both and with five minutes to go there was a lot of cloud but then as the eclipse countdown started the skies cleared enough to get a very good view.
I wonder if there is any relationship between the suns activity during an eclipse and clouds?
Tonyb
Perhaps some sort of focusing effect of the moon on the corona?
“I wonder if there is any relationship between the suns activity during an eclipse and clouds?”
Roy Spencer said the same thing happened to him. There were clouds right before the eclipse and then they all just cleared up and he got a perfect view. He has a discussion about it over on his website.
I’ve read many accounts of clouds breaking just enough to give people a good view for several eclipses. Of course, I wouldn’t expect too many comments like “It stayed cloudy.”
I’m sure the hour and a half of reduced solar heating before totality clears out convective clouds like cumulus, even thunderstorms. I doubt it would have much effect on high clouds like cirrus.
Mid-level alto stuff, I’m not sure.
Great stuff guys, thanks for sharing A&C
Up in Canada 1 hour from the border, I witnessed an 86% coverage of the sun. I wasn’t willing to go over the border in to the mad-house. lol. Even still, reported temperature for our area was 19 Celsius and dropped to 17 Celsius during the eclipse. My co-workers and I used a 1/4″ thick piece of black acrylic and sunglasses to view it. Was cool. Although, I wish I had been where the real action was 🙂 Thanks for the video!
Somewhat similar as I’m in Western Canada ( Saskatchewan) and I used a piece of tinted acrylic to take a picture with my phone. Sunlight was utterly dominant but somehow I got two small sister images to lower left and right of the sun that very clearly show the coverage of the sun’s disc.
So I’m happy! It would be nice to see totality but too long a drive.
I viewed it in Michigan using a box with a hole in one side and my head in the box, then as clouds passed by I could look directly at the sun when the clouds were right and that was neat, it was about 10 percent but quite dramatic, weird to see it.
Next time use the box to project the sun on the far side through the keyhole. And use a CD to look through at the sun. It has just enough opacity. Any music on it will do, even none at all, but I recommend Bach.
DON’T look at the sun, also not through a keyhole.
I’ve read that an eclipse can also be viewed through welder’s glasses or helmet.
True. A welding hood with a number 8 or ten filter in it works well. Good for photography too if you make a little rack to hold them both in their proper places. Just be sure to use a fresh one so you don’t have spatter messing up your view.
I recommend the opening of Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.
CCR’s Bad Moon Rising.
@Michael – WHAT?! Dark Side of the Moon, sir.
Was the corona still too bright for photography to capture nearby stars as well?
That’s where the “you can’t practice for this” part comes in.
Nope. I got one from the Oregon State Fairgrounds with my Cannon Powershot 30is and ND 2400 filter. To the lower left is a star. I forgot to check which it was. Check it out here: https://goo.gl/photos/x2b8hKAQSWajGUBn7
Here is one of my shots from Stayton, Oregon – right in the center of Totality with great weather and no big crowd where I was.
I got Regulus, pretty close to the Sun, with at 1-second exposure during totality. Picked up a very dim Mercury too.
Martin, I have seen a few shots of this eclipse that show the bright star Regulus and one or two others near the sun. It can be done. Just be prepared to vary your exposures a lot so that you can pick up the faint outer corona and any stars in the field.
Beauty!
Thank you Anthony and Charles.
Flew to Nashville for the day and got lucky … clouds on and off during the partial but cleared off just in time for totality. Such an experience, nothing to compare it to. People around us at the Hermitage (close to airport and lots of open fields) all very nice and bonded by sharing the wonder …including a couple on the blanket next to us who’d come from the UK. Invested in a pair of solar binoculars which were cool but too dark for viewing the corona during totality. Definitely worth the trip, hope I’m here for the Texas eclipse in seven years!
Good for you .. a much deserved celestial event trip.
Totality is fantastic. Been to Turkey and Romania to witness in the past. Once clear, once cloudy, but both great trips.
Near Denver, with 92% coverage, my wife and I enjoyed watching the crescent-shaped leaf shadows on the patio. Focused light outlined our locust and maple tree leaves with fine detail.
I’m guessing that ophthalmologists are busy today. / cynicism
And everyone of those people answered the question with “No, I did not look at the Sun, I got something in my eyes.”
You can do the test yourself. Get an 8.5″X11″ of 1/8″ grid. Put a distinct dot in the middle of the paper. Stare at the dot and see where the grid disappears. Sketch in the blank spots, those are your burns.
Don’t panic if each eye has a blind spot. That’s normal.
……..and Al Gore said there would be many more of these and the earth will be blacked-out 83.4% of the time by the year 2033.
I enjoyed your presentation, thank you and many thanks to all those who took over while you were away…..and welcome back soon.
Maybe he was planning on passing in front of the sun.
Don’t plan on the beach when Al Gore is there!
Great to hear from you, and I knew you would find an ideal clear spot to view the eclipse. I was in Perry, Fl to view the total eclipse on March 7th, 1970. And incidentally it’s path would have crossed the path of the recent total eclipse in South Carolina:
I don’t believe the NASA crowd mentioned this from Charleston SC on Monday…
Great post Anthony and Charles. My daughter was giving me live updates from Oregon. Stuck in the San Francisco Bay Area, but at least the San Francisco fog cooperated as a perfect filter for live viewing and pic-taking. Fairly boring on a scale of things, but casually done from my front yard with an early glass of wine:
http://village.photos/images/user/b0f8f44b-d0c4-4bcf-8a5d-6f6dd319371c/73f171d3-3dc3-4ee3-8bc4-4b98ee622dd7.jpg
Illustrates an interesting aspect. Why don’t we see the Moon? Because the blue veil we call the ‘sky’ is actually in front of the Moon [it is our air. You are breathing some of it…], blotting out the black disk that is the obscuring the Sun.
Gee, and here I thought it was because the side of the moon facing earth was only illuminated by Earthshine, and that was darker than the light coming from the sun that was scattered by the air.
So now you know better…
Damn CO2 again! It ruins everything!
I didn’t have the foggiest idea……
And… this is why lsvalgaard comments are usually skipped by me. Clyde, you know better.
The coronal light is brighter than the reflection from the moon, and therefore washes out the reflection. That same “blue air” is there when there is a non-eclipsing new moon – and you can frequently see the earthshine in good weather conditions, and with a sufficient angle from the sun.
I do recall seeing one photo from many years ago, when there was a total eclipse when the moon was near to perigee, and the sun was exceptionally quiet – and the earthshine was visible.
You can see the earthshine on the new moon at night when there is no sunlight to be scattered by the air. During day hours you never see the earthshine at new moon. The issue is also not if you can see the corona [which you cannot] at such times. The point is that the blue sky is in front>/b> of the moon and prevents us from seeing the dark lunar disk. At night, there is no scattered sunlight and we can see the lunar disk illuminated by the earthshine.
The sunlit moon, fireballs, and Venus are the only objects that don’t get completely washed out by the sky.
A lot of people saw Venus during the day for the first time during totality. An interesting exercise is to spot it during normal daylight conditions. It helps to have really dry air, i.e. a deep blue sky. Both times I’ve seen Venus was the day after the moon and Venus were close together. I hunted down the crescent moon in the sky, then looked for Venus. The moon moves some 6 or 7 degrees in 12 hours, so it won’t have the same relationship with Venus that it had the night before. I stood under an awning that blocks both the Sun and a lot of sky to cut down on glare.
I was also impressed by the UK eclipse (circa 2001 or so).
The elipse was over a thin low-level stratus layer, with the Sun faintly visible (no glasses needed). I thought this would destroy the effect, but what we ended up with was a pall of blackness rushing in from the west at incredible speed. The four horses of the apocalypse at full gallop across the whole horizon, eventually plunging us into complete darkness. It was so dramatic I nearly forgot to look at the Sun, which was just about visible behind the cloud layer.
R
Thanks!
It is so great to hear you are doing well.
And the video is wonderful.
Enjoy your time, hope to hear more about your adventures.
I was in McMinnville for the eclipse, a bit to the west of where CTM and Anthony were. I will agree with the “jaw dropping”. The photos do not fully prepare you for the experience of standing in twilight with a huge black Sun with Venus twinkling overhead.
By the way, if you ever get to the area between Salem and Portland, do take a moment to pop over to McMinnville. For one thing, that is the location of the Evergreen Aviation Museum where the Spruce Goose is located and there are many other aircraft, both US and foreign including an SR-71 and an Me-262 which was the first jet fighter.
With the 747 on the roof of the pool with water slides coming out of it, awesome.
Yes, though the water slide is a separate business and therefore a separate ticket. I had a great time at the museum, though. A lot of history with Evergreen Aviation, too.
It’s also the site of two famous 1950s close-up UFO photos, and since then the locale of annual UFO confabs.
Also, I did not experience the claimed traffic hell. There was one place at about Weed,CA where they were doing construction and there was a backup due to that and there was a little bit of congestion at Eugene due to merges but otherwise if was fine. I took 99W south from McMinnville, cut over to 99E on Noraton Rd and from there on 99 to I-5 at Eugene. Smooth sailing all the way home save that backup around Weed.
My wife recorded the NASA and ABC coverage.
NASA coverage was so bad that I switched and watched the ABC coverage.
Bill Nye almost made me switch back, but he bumbled around so much it was pretty funny, even though it wasn’t supposed to be.
The end is Nye. Definitely cringe-worthy.
Got to build a 4′ pin hole camera and watch partial eclipse with family. Crescent shadows from leaves. Usable reflection off water.
I envy your choice in campgrounds! Lee Ann and I had reservations for camping in Madras, but we bailed on them because the crowds were so large. Instead we watched using a pinhole viewer and tv coverage.
Saw the eclipse. Not awe inspiring but rather boring. Of course stunning at totality but that is when I left to beat the traffic.
I55 was totally jammed on the way back to Wisconsin.
You will have to take that up with the good Lord when you meet him.
If
capitalistfiles: I felt much the same way. I was at home, which meant no traffic to fight. Our news keeps calling it “life-changing”, etc. Totality was indeed stunning, and the “diamond ring” as it comes out of totality, but the rest was basically just things darking and a small temperature drop (5° F where I was). The complete silence and stillness was also noticeable if you weren’t where there were a lot of people. I can’t see myself driving anywhere for the next one.
Hasn’t everyone seen a partial eclipse before? Rather slow paced, but great to watch in a maple tree. It didn’t seem as slow on Monday, but we had more things to do and the anticipation was much greater.
I saw an annular eclipse in 1994 or so. I knew it was going to be disappointing, but there were a couple effects I noticed that were nice to know about before seeing the last 1% of the sun get covered.
We didn’t leave until well after totality ended. Must’ve been at least 120 seconds. 🙂
I viewed the eclipse near Broken Bow, Nebraska. We were the only people on a ridge and the nearest neighbors were miles away. It was foggy in the morning with a 30% chance of rain at 1pm, which was about the totality time. The fog burned off and we had clear weather the rest of the day. It was an amazing experience. My brother drove up from the Tucson area to view the eclipse with his telescope. My daughter had two cameras going at the same time. At totality, the security lights at the local farms came on and the lights dotted the landscape. The wind completely died down; it got very quiet except for the crickets and we could see the line of darkness approach from the west. When it started getting light again, all the grazing cows in the area started mooing. We could see both Venus and Jupiter with bare eyes at totality.
It was oddly emotional for me. I would not have traveled that far on my own, but I am glad my brother urged me to go with him. Absolutely wonderful.
My daughter was watching from St. Paul, Nebraska … drove down from O’Neill to catch the totality at the park along the Loup River with her dog. Not crowded like I heard Grand Island was (not a motel room or campsite to be had there) and she got a nice clear view. i’ve read about animals acting strangely (elephants at the Nashville zoo apparently got agitated when totality ended) but her springer spaniel was too busy playing in the water with some labs to notice. 🙂
Flew a small plane from Raleigh (95%) to Triple Tree (SC00) just east of Greenville SC for the total event. Triple Tree is a very small version of Oshkosh with about 200 acres of parking with a long grass strip. It appeared about 200 planes made the trip.
Going down, I-77 between Charlotte and Columbia was very busy southbound and coming back was stop and go coming north, so a lot of people made the trip by car.
My impressions were: 1. It was incredible and well worth the trip 2. The intensity of the Sun dropped visibly and the 40% or so cumulus coverage just disappeared before totality. Obviously the lack of heating lessened the updrafts and a very warm atmosphere did the rest. 3. The change in shadows were remarkable 4. The temps dropped noticeably and returned pretty quickly afterward 5. You could see the dark umbra coming and leaving. 6. During totality, it was like the sunset around the entire horizon. You could rotate 360 degrees and it all looked like 20 minutes after sunset. 7. The cumulous clouds also returned within an hour.
I noticed on the GOES-16 visible image you could see the cumulus there before the shadow came across and gone after it passed in a lot of the areas. Must be a common phenomenon.
I’m glad people like AW get to photograph it so we can have visual images to remember. The best I have is some shots with my iPhone.
Going by plane was the way to go, but quite frankly we ended up staying 3 hours while everyone left. Quite an assortment of old planes and new. A Staggerwing Beech, Pilatus PC-6, DC-3, D-18 just to name a few. Plus Pilots are always a great group of people to share this with.
Little structure in the Corona. Weak magnetic field.
Supposed to be about 89 percent at my location. Didn’t have approved glasses, but used a combination of sun glasses, the plastic lenses that optometrists supply, AND CLOUD COVER to get a couple of glimpses. It was mostly sunny, but with clouds puffs around. Near the time of maximum extent, whenever I’d see it go dark outside from clouds passing in front of the sun, I’d go out and see if I could see it … safely … through the clouds. Got two or three good peeks at it. If I’m still around in 2024 I’m going to plan to visit my son in Texas and hopefully experience the big show.
Thank You both.
I viewed from a piece of welders glass and used that glass over my camera on the phone to take some photos. It would not show the moon coverage, I realized after that, I might have gotten that photo if I held my camera an inch away from the glass.
“crepuscular rays” I did capture some of those ! Thanks for telling me what they are ! I also captured another planet in my photos but don’t know what it would be.
I saw totality from Russellville, KY.
Unlike the bandwagon jumpers, I’ve been planning this since 1997 — and I wasn’t disappointed. Every part of it was worth the money and the effort. Photos and videos just can’t capture the vividness and contrast of the totality. I was on my knees and my eyes were watering up; words couldn’t describe the view.
Everybody be sure come here to Indiana in 2024 for the next one in the US!
If I’m still alive, that’s where I’ll be on 4/8/2024!
I still think that Anthony Watts should be knighted by the Queen. Arise, Sir Anthony!
We experienced totality in the Sandhills of SC; awesomeness! While driving back to campsite, I mentioned to my lovely bride about the spectacular sunset as well…with the C. Rays visible long after the sun dipped below the horizon!
Very interesting post (and comments). Thanks Anthony and Charles.
Welcome to the Moon Shadow Club Anthony & CTM (not to mention the tens of thousands of ‘newbies’ elsewhere). I witnessed the Big One over Baja California Sur back in July 1991. I considered myself a fairly experienced amateur astronomer even back then so I thought that I would take this big eclipse in my stride. With about 30 minutes to go I decided to show some non-astronomers with us how to project the sun’s image onto white card holding binoculars. Although the bino’s were fairly light, I couldn’t get a steady image as my hand was shaking far more than I realized.
I’ve seen several “Great Auroral Storms” that have gone on all night. I have seen a handful of Great Comets that have been spectacular over many nights. I have seen 22 consecutive Total Lunar Eclipses from my area of New Zealand in the past 50 years that have come in all sorts of hues including a few black ones thanks to El Chichon & Pinatubo, but those 6 minutes & 50 seconds in the lunar shadow will remain at the pinnacle of all the things that I have observed since I became interested in astronomy. To be able point binoculars at the eclipsed sun and directly see not only the exquisite detail of the silvery corona but the cherise coloured solar prominences sticking above the dark limb of the moon was very special. I liken it to being given the key to a room of vast treasure that you are allowed to look into and be dazzled by only for the guard to close the door and take back the key. It is easy to see why people travel so far and so often to witness this.
Very poetic!
Thank you!
Thanks Anthony. Much appreciated.
My astronomy-inclined partner blew her mind in Wyoming yesterday. I expect to here it was far better than the total eclipse we experienced together in North Queensland in 2012.
NASA had poorly initiated tracking cameras. About half way they got better.
.
If I were king I would have resuscitated an SR-71 Blackbird and had them pace totality with a sonic boom across the country.
Now there’s an idea!
If I were king I’d have set up an organization to assist with housing and feeding for visitors all along the path of the eclipse (e.g., a central website for making reservations), and especially done all possible to facilitate visits by foreigners. It would have been good PR for the U.S.
there were tracking something else (can do only one task at any time)/s
there were some sunspots in the view aligned more or less parallel with the solar equator.
note: the sun’s equator is inclined by 7.25 degrees to the ecliptic, while the Earth’s equator is inclined by by 23.45 degrees, hence the inclination in the solar equator as viewed from ground
Your photography far exceeds mine. And not just because of all the beer I had for breakfast before the eclipsing process began.
“We were by ourselves – blissful solitude.”
The best way to experience the great celestial event.
During totality it’s vision, sounds of nature and the temperature change all attacking the senses simultaneously for far too short two minutes. Last thing I would wish to be is among crowd ‘oooing’ and ‘waaaooing’
Having seen two eclipses before in1961, among vineyards near my house, and second time in the secluded part of London’s Wimbledon common in 1999, on both occasions I was on my own. Observing total eclipse in the total silence is all together different experience.
I have to confess to near-shouting a few OMGs … I’ll try to keep my cool better if I make it to 2024 🙂
Annie Dillard wrote, in her classic essay “Total Eclipse,” at https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/annie-dillards-total-eclipse/536148/?utm_source=nl-politics-daily-082117:
Anthony mentioned his experience wrt the annular eclipse some years back. We were holidaying in Fernley, Nevada but were able to view the eclipse from a disused golf course on the outskirts of Reno…spectacular on several counts: on arrival at said golf course the only other person there was a gentleman called George who had driven up from San Diego (some 600 miles I think) with all the kit except a camera. A gentlemanly discussion ensued: George had the beer and was happy to distribute and I was more than happy to lend him my camera. American hospitality!. On return to the UK I read that Anthony had stopped off in Fernley for a coffee and was mortified that I had missed the opportunity to meet one my true contemporary heroes and shake his hand. Maybe next time!
Tony Windsor
Anthony and ctm, sure glad you found a lonely spot to spot the sun and moon.
I spent last night in Pendleton (going south) and there was an 8 mile 2-lane stop and go on I-82 at 7 PM. ODOT had a bridge lane closed northbound. Excellent bureaucratic planning, not.
But I heard a kid at motel marvel at the spectacle. Nice that her Dad didn’t rely on the NASA app to show her that piece of mother nature.
Btw, my total eclipse came in 1973(?) In Nova Scotia. Watched and photographed with my Dad.
you’re so vain
LOL, Last
And the next Great North American Eclipse is April 8, 2024. Going right over my sister’s house. Time to plan for it. https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024/
Some lucky people just south east of St. Lewis will see second totality in less than 7 years time, perhaps one of the places in the area should be renamed to Eclipsville.
Nice dramatic clip Anthony.
How does one share photos from a cell phone to a blog comment. I, too, have some unusual photos I would like to share. I could send them by email to someone who knows how to do this. I discussed the phenomenon in one of the eclipse threads in which the canopy of a tree creates “pinholes” of light through to the ground that project living images of the sun. Any sunny day the sprinkle of round light spots can be seen in the shade of a tree.
I have a few photos of these plus magnificent scatters of of the crescents of the 66%eclipse max at Ottawa, Ontario.
Hey how come the eclipse wasn’t caused by CAGW ? the alarmists are slipping .
I did not get even close to seeing it. but listening to you guys enthuse… its put a big smile on my face
I viewed it with my wife in Fort Laramie WY. First time ever we witnessed a full eclipse. It was like a sacred moment and I will never forget the split second transition to darkness and the same when the lights were turned on again. And yes, the temperature dropped significantly. Maybe Gore should organize more eclipses to cool the earth.
AW: could you post hi res, suitable for printing / framing?
Thanks Anthony et. al. for the great pictures
Glad you could make it to Oregon. My brother, WUWT regular Ric Werme, joined me for a similar remote off the grid Oregon viewing. Well worth the trip.
Doug made this spur-of-the-moment video of the entry into totality.
I’ll be creating a web page with my photos and maybe some other peoples’ when I get home and get caught up. Probably this weekend.
Good one! These type of videos is what I expected to see more of with the TV and NASA coverage. They all tended to cut away when the crowd got in complete darkness. I heard that ABC had good coverage though – hope to see more of these types of videos with the actual human reactions. Maybe some will be posted on Youtube, etc. And thanks again Anthony for your expert coverage and descriptions…
Anyone else unable to play the video? It just sits there with the 3 dots in the middle bubbling away.
Magnetic, plasma even. Gases? No. Sun is more electric than we can imqgine. I can hardly spell. The earth is nearly roundoid, the press and pr are flat? Global warming is cosmic stirrings mostly. Pollution is not light. Get on the ball scientists. I can hardly science.
The vacuous network commentary was hard to listen to. The worst was when they started talking about “complete totality.”
I cannot believe what a perfect location Anthony scoped out. Here’s a shot of us fighting the crowds. That’s my travel companion in the middle, meditating during the eclipse. Anthony is under the awning.
It was truly an amazing day, and I was happy to have you both there with me.
Anthony,
Great event.
We watched the eclipse from a nice, uncrowded campsite at Sunset ranch 8-10 miles NW of Madras, Oregon and overlooking the canyon of Lake Chinook, 70 miles WNW of your Deep Creek campsite. My son and daughter-in-law served mimosas to several fellow observers during the event.
Other campsites in the general Madras area were enormous. After the eclipse ended, the highways morphed into giant parking lots. Tough drive home to Vancouver B.C.
Anthony,
So glad you and CTM had a good day. Sorry we missed you in NZ this time.
Had a great family time viewing the eclipse at Clarksville,TN with 2 brothers from Toronto and son from Indianapolis.
One brother took a great viedo of the shadow bands…something I had never spotted in the other 2 eclipses I’ve seen. Well worth the trip from New Zealand!
PBS had an eclipse special last night that was quite good. I watched because of the team on Casper Mountain, but was impressed with the show. There was a lot of interesting information in it.
(It’s on again on Wednesday in my TV market.)
Yes, this was a very good program…I was astounded they put it together so quickly…I saw it in Tennesee only about 6 or 7 hours after the eclipse had ended!
Cool!
Magnificent returns for our pittances of donations!
Terrific work. Very, very nice.
In southeastern Washington State with 96.8% of total eclipse, a thermometer in the direct sun went from 76 F to 70 F. Also, as the sun set that evening, I observed two beautiful son dogs in the cirrus clouds.
Charles, where’s the solar-mobile? Anthony didn’t drive up in his EV?
The 2024 eclipse is going to just miss San Antonio and Austin (something like 99.91%?)
Hope I can hang in there for 6.5 years more and watch it from my patio. May drive into the hill country and catch 100%.
This eclipse was not my first rodeo. While I had invited Anthony to view the eclipse from Baker County viewing, he went elsewhere in Eastern Oregon, instead missing out on wood splitting opportunities during dusky darkness. My companion and I continued to split wood through the entire eclipse. In the near distance (next door) a rooster crowed afterwards. That would have been cool except for the fact this rooster crows all the time. As far as I could tell, Halfway remained a quiet conservative hamlet through the entire thing. Thank God.
So the invite still stands. Anthony, if life gets stressful or you just need a break, join my friends and I in this wonderful part of Oregon. Fishing is the order of the day.
I may very well take you up on that. This place also had the advantage of Altitude ~5000 feet, enough to get above the haze layer. Pretty important for quality solar
photography.
Did you notice that in the stills you posted of totality and of the diamond ring, you captured the star Regulus? (Near the bottom, on the left side).
It was definitely worth the drive, apparently I was in the same forest.
I feel sorry for my coworkers who bought the traffic Armageddon hype and didn’t see totality
Excellent Anthony and CTM. Seems the best part for you was not the eclipse but having it all come together so well. Nice. Thanks for the post and cool video.
Here in southern Alberta there was 82% coverage. I took a lot of photos with my DSLR in the driveway of our humble summer RV lot. Had to schlep my gear about 30 feet from my “office” to the driveway. ☺
http://cwrboatclub.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/8/50683553/eclipse-master-composite-f-1000_orig.jpg
Reply: It’s true. For me, there was a great deal of satisfaction in the plans coming together. There was so much uncertainty leading up to this: the traffic fears, inadequate gas supplies, my own photographic inexperience, aaaannnnnddd I haven’t been camping in 42 years. I was frightened and elated leading up to it.
I ate less than 10% of the dried food I purchased, and less than half of the refrigerated items, such as cheese and salami. We were prepared for various contingencies but between us, had all supplies we needed, including tools and craft supplies for cutting and assembling our solar filters. The location was amazing and the planned routes out worked perfectly to avoid crowds.~ctm
Saw this from N of Unity, Oregon on 245, right on the centreline. I was apprehensive about traffic but the trip there (from Boise) in the early hours was very quiet. The result was awesome, as we missed the full experience of the 1999 one in UK because of cloud. No such problems in E Oregon! The site was good (an ODOT road gravel pile) and not as crowded as I expected – does nobody research the NASA eclipse stuff? Surprisingly one party there were Brits living no more than 40 miles from us! This eclipse seemed quite good from the combination of features – corona & prominences. No doubt NASA will say more when they’ve done the analysis. Thank you US for hosting us for this!
I believe most of the traffic from the eclipse in Oregon went North. As I was driving from McMinnville toward Corvalis there was practically no traffic southbound and northbound was absolutely jammed so I think most came down from Portland with a relatively smaller number from California that came north. It was a long drive, about 12 hours from where I live to get there. Yreka is about half way for me. I did get a nice picture of Mt Shasta on the way home, though!
Was working on a project in SLC and decided the least-crowded relatively nearby place to see it would be near Howe ID.
Got up there Sunday morning, found a lone juniper tree on a desert hilltop and 4x4d up to it on an obscure and little-used dirt road and made camp. Over the next 22 hours watched wildlife, drank beer, relaxed, read some history and watched a slow trickle of campers/RVs/Motorhomes etc. stake out spots all around us.
I delayed too long and missed out on the approved safe viewing lens so borrowed my friend’s arc-welding mask which was shade 10.
I started out looking at the western sky away from the sun just before totality started based on something I read on the internet about the best way to experience the “snake shadow” phenomena. I was greeted not only with that absolutely freaky scene but also the sensation of the sun suddenly being turned off and stars being visible in an instant, which along with the corona were the highlights for me.
I didn’t stare the whole time at it, never looking longer than maybe 5 seconds at a time. So far I am experiencing none of the symptoms described for doing damage. One thing I read that was surprising is that ophthalmologists can tell sometimes just by examination of the eye if someone has ever viewed an eclipse without proper protection.
The sensation of the people around me (screams/hoots/whistles) when the corona appeared was almost as memorable as the scene itself, no words do it justice.
And the sight of Venus further away than the sun and so very bright was a real surprise – I had not done enough homework on what to look for.
Historically, eclipses altered history. Nicias, for example, during the Peloponnesian wars between Athens and Sparta, decided to stay in Sicily for 30 days extra after seeing an eclipse August 28, in 413 BC. End result was his army was totally annihilated by the Sicilians (with a Spartan general leading). It became Athens’ biggest defeat ever.
On the the same August date was also the WWI August 21, 1914 total solar eclipse,
https://www.universetoday.com/113882/remembering-the-world-war-i-eclipse/
I was able to enjoy the 2001 eclipse from a unique vantage point in the Zambezi valley inside Zimbabwe. I flew my trike microlight straight at the sun in the hopes of being at altitude sufficient to see the shadow moving over the ground.
Totality was incredible with the corona and the stars shining. A very strange sensation in many ways. At about 5000 ft above ground level, 6300ft AMSL, I turned off the engine and just glided along staring at the moon surrounded by a glow. Peaceful and awesome.
I was so keen to see the shadow moving across the land that I convinced myself that I had. My buddy in the other trike said he didn’t see it but he was lower than me so who knows.
Restarted after several minutes and turned away as the sun began reappearing. Went down and landed in twilight. A very singular experience in my life.
Warm Regards Anthony.
A page on the technical aspects of the photography/videography – shutter speeds, apertures, filters etc would be of great interest.
Hi ThinkingScientist
Photos were a bit of a crap shoot. I took a few test shots the day before. My DSLR has an EVF which is a boon for things like this…I shot in M mode (always shoot in M mode) and could look at the flip screen with no problems…although it was still to bright to actually focus. I tried welding glass but the sun sdges were soft with the glass.
My half-decent pics during the eclipse were taken between f29 and f32 and between 1/5,000 and 1/8,000 second and a 400-mm lens. Because I could not actually see the sun on the screen..white blob…I used manual focus from ∞ and backed off a bit. Of the 150 photos I selected a few and made a composite picture (posted above.)
If the crik don’t rise I hope to do this again in 2024 (age 77), however live in a mere 20% zone. Oh well.
Clice
“but the sun sdges were soft ” should be “but the sun edges were soft ”
Bad morning..can’t even spell my own name! ☺
Clive
Anthony, thanks for sharing this — beautiful timelapse!
I had the fortune of enjoying the total eclipse just west of the Grant Teton mountains, south of Rexburg near the center of maximum totality for that longitude. Definitely worth the trip (despite horrendous traffic afterwards). Perfect weather with completely clear skies. Awe-inspiring experience!
Texas 2024 or bust!
We got only a partial eclipse here in Houston. But I got a thin piece of cardboard and enjoyed the partial anyhow. With a follow-on of an almost famous hamburger from Millers. And a root beer. Great.
Forgot to mention the step of punching a small hole in the cardboard.
It’a amazing how large the shadow appears while crossing North America. I wish they had slowed it down a bit though, but you can pause it…:
Cheered and heartened by all of the eclipse adventures related here!
My own adventure started Sunday afternoon, just south of Seattle. I loaded a cooler of milk, cheese, sausage, crackers, beer, and ice into my pickup truck, topped up the fuel tank and lashed down a 5 gallon ‘reserve’ gas can, tossed my sleeping bag and a rolled up foam pad into the cab, and headed for Madras OR. I90 and Hwy 97 led me down to Madras, +300 miles later. I found a quiet backroad (NE Loukes Rd) just NE of Madras, with a safe ‘pull off’ area, rolled out my pad and sleeping bag in the truck bed, and let the crickets sing me to sleep at 1am. When I awakened at 6:30am, a quick sortie found a great viewing spot less than a half mile east… and no one else within sight, so I set up there and settled back into my bed roll for a ‘power’ nap. This is a rolling hills rural area, with chickens crowing and cows lowing in the background – just my style!
The eclipse started at about 9:06am. I was using a welder lens to monitor progress visually (while laying on my sleeping bag) and having fun using one side of my binoculars as a ‘pinhole camera’ to project the occluding sun image on the side of my truck. By 9:50 it was at ~ 50%, with the air temp dropping enough I put my sweatshirt back on! At 10:08, it was ~ 75% and the local chickens were making ‘broody’ calls. By 10:15 it was ~ 90% occluded, twilight and dimming, the chickens were calling ‘roost’ and horses were uneasily wickering in the distance. Totality hit at ~ 10:19 and lasted for 2 minutes. I watched the last few seconds before totality and most of the full eclipse through my binoculars – It was Awesome! Very, very ‘cool’ to see the solar aurora, prominences, and implied magnetic fields through binoculars during totality. I attempted a few pictures and a video with both a tripod mounted camera and my cell phone… but neither came close to the detail level I could see with my Nikon 10 x 50 binocs! For those two minutes, I was completely entranced! I get ‘goose bumps’, just thinking about it now!
Was it worth 600 miles of driving, short sleep, and ‘roughing it’? You damn betcha!!!
Really liked the last photo enlarged which showed the sun’s photosphere and the corona. I hope you post more photos of your excellent adventure in the near future. Liked the “big” crowd at your campsite…JPP
Do you have any pics of when it got dark?
A few months ago I discovered that my father-in-law lives in the the path of totality, so I made a trip down there to see it with him – totally worth it! Weather teased us a bit with clouds early on, but it cleared out by the time of totality. 🙂
We went to a spot 23 miles ESE of Rexburg, ID. in the exact centerline of totality. We drove east out of Rexburg over Woods Crossing and followed Mud Springs road out past the farms to forest service road 218. It was an unimproved road and wilderness area which provided solitude.
We found a clearing at 6300 ft. elevation with an unimpeded view to the west. There we met an Entomologist from UC Riverside who was studying the insects and videotaping the landscape as the shadow raced towards us from the west.
We recorded a temperature drop of 30F from 78F at 10:15 AM to 48F at 11:35 AM. There was a beautiful 360 degree sunset along with an other worldly view of the Sun. It was an indescribable experience.
Stuck in the UK, I didn’t even get to see the small residual partial that occurred here shortly before sunset as it clouded over. I did watch some of the streamed NASA output early on, but I felt it really didn’t do justice to the wider scene – and it also buffered up from here. I wondered what my Stellarium (freeware) software would make of it, and found it does an amazing job – probably over-dramatising the visible starscape during totality. Just set it for a location in the path of totality, and run it from a few minutes before. Pause the time periodically, and pan around the sky.
I did happen on this story about capturing some stunning images:
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/5501288570/how-the-viral-climber-eclipse-photo-and-video-were-shot
Of course, it takes having the idea to begin with. Software again can be very helpful with doing the planning – you do have to work out the exact spot you need to be in, although you can confirm you have the alignment right a day in advance. This is what I would have used:
http://app.photoephemeris.com/?ll=44.371448,-121.146020¢er=44.3710,-121.1452&dt=20170821101300-0700&z=18&spn=0.00,0.01&sll=44.370524,-121.143446
Mr Espenak as always has advice on exposures:
http://www.mreclipse.com/SEphoto/SEphoto.html